The desert alphabet book Book

Oops... no maps, despite the global reach. But that's ok, because of course educators can make a lesson out of finding all the places mentioned. (Just remember to choose your projection wisely if you don't have a good globe; do *not* use a Mercator!) Also readers will want to know more about certain animals; I'm going to do my own research on the kulan.

As always, Pallotta keeps the focus on the concept, but adds enough detail to keep the reader engaged. In this case I was almost beginning to mechanically flip the pages to get to the end when I noticed the surprise on the Palmate Gecko page. I won't spoil it for you; see for yourself!

I would have loved this when my boys were young and we lived in Nevada... there are different deserts all over the world!

Then one thing Pallotta didn't cover is Antarctica, or other frozen deserts. But I won't mark him down for that. I do highly recommend this, if you're willing to do research yourself instead of relying on notes, bibliography... in many books those are crucial, but here it's just so easy the inclusion is unnecessary.

New Scrabble words: jird, kulan, xerus, zaita... ;)